


painted lights

by rosyjeongin



Series: dreaming of a white christmas | nct dream [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Best Friends, F/M, Fluff, Holidays, Late Night Drives, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 13:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22193167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosyjeongin/pseuds/rosyjeongin
Summary: renjun wants to show you something.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Reader
Series: dreaming of a white christmas | nct dream [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591993
Kudos: 29





	painted lights

The night is quiet enough to hear the stars ringing in the sky. Somewhere in the neighborhood, someone is playing faint Christmas music, barely discernible enough to make out the lyrics. The soft chirping of cicadas right outside your window seem to go in time with the pulsing of the beat. Clicking away at the keys to your laptop, there’s the feeling of peacefulness that washes over you, during these times where the day and night blend together and create an ethereal moment in time. You feel like the only person awake on the whole planet.

You allow yourself to sink further into your bedsheets, leaning back against the headboard and laptop propped up against your knees. Your fingers have taken a rest, hovering just above the keyboard, unsure of what to do next. The small block of text against the white document of your assignment stares back at you, almost mockingly. You groan, smothering your face with your hands. You don’t know why you decided to put this off until now. You had all the time in the day, but now you were spending your night trying to finish an assignment last-minute. It’s not the first time it’s happened, though.

You wiggle your toes and lean your head back against the headboard, staring up at the ceiling. You could just put off the assignment until tomorrow morning, again, and go to sleep. But you don’t really feel like sleeping. You’ve been waiting for the heaviness in your eyelids to settle and for drowsiness to hit you, but it still hasn’t. You’re still wide awake.

A cold gust of wind spurs you even further awake, and you shiver at the cold air. You realize your window is slightly ajar, and the curtains are billowing gently in front of it. You sit up and place your laptop on the bed and go to close your window. When right in front of it, goosebumps crawl up your arms as the air bites at your skin. Below you, you can see the street softly illuminated by streetlamps and the Christmas lights hung across houses along the road. You open up the window, allowing the cool night air to spill into your room. The house right across from you has decorated the tree in their front yard, stringing colors across the branches in a way that vaguely reminds you of the view of the city skyline from far away. 

You’re staring at the lit-up tree now, liking the way the lights flicker and shift between the colors when you hear the humming of a car approaching from far away. It’s not unusual to see cars pass by at this time in the night, but then the car appears in your vision and it’s one you recognize. It slows down to a stop in front of your house, and you see the way the sleek metal reflects the twinkling bright lights, distorting them into stretches of light across the car. It’s hard to see the license plate or the driver, but you can already tell who it is. His face appears when he rolls down the window.

It’s Huang Renjun, your best friend. He looks at you, then shouts, “y/n!” You quickly wave your hands and put a finger to your mouth in a shushing motion, because what is he doing yelling in the middle of a sleeping neighborhood at two in the morning? Then, he starts to gesticulate wildly, waving his hands this way and that and pointing somewhere you can’t see. You exaggeratedly shake your head and shrug. You can see Renjun hold up a finger, like “hold on a second”, and then he crouches down to rummage through his car. When he resurfaces, he’s holding up his phone, pointing it towards you like a beacon of light. You nod and retreat back into your room to retrieve your phone from your desk.

There’s already a message from him in your notifications.

[2:13 am] renjun: hey asshat, sorry if i woke u

[2:13 am] y/n: no it’s fine

[2:13 am] y/n: actually no it’s not

[2:14 am] y/n: what are u even doing here… have u seen what time it is?

[2:14 am] renjun: uh yes actually i did

[2:14 am] renjun: get dressed and go outside

[2:14 am] renjun: i wanna show you something

[2:14 am] y/n: ???? renjun it’s 2 in the morning

[2:15 am] y/n: can’t you wait til tomorrow

[2:15 am] renjun: no, this is URGENT

[2:15 am] y/n: ok ok fine, damn

[2:15 am] renjun: hurry up it’s cold

[2:15 am] y/n: be there in five

You’re contemplating whether or not to get dressed completely, but in the end you decide to grab a hoodie and throw it over your pajamas. You grab your keys and your phone from your desk and are about to leave, when you remember the assignment that was waiting for you on the laptop. You look back at it and sigh, shaking your head as you go back to close the laptop.

You hurry down the stairs and out the front door, stopping just outside to put on your shoes. The air seems colder when you’re outside, and you’re almost regretting not layering up more.

As you approach the car waiting for you in front of the house, Renjun peeks his head out of the window. In the low light, you can see the way his hair is ruffled underneath his hood, and the thin glasses perched upon his nose bridge. The Christmas lights reflect onto his eyes like dancing fireflies. He grins at you. “Good morning,” he says, in a quiet voice, now sure not to wake the whole neighborhood.

You scowl at him and smack his head. “I was doing stuff, you know,” you say as you make your way around to the passenger seat. He reaches across the armrest and pushes the door open for you. As you climb inside, he says, “What kind of stuff? Like pretending to do your assignment?” He snickers as you glare at him.

“Where are we even going anyways?” you ask as he turns on the engine.

“Just wait and see, alright?”

“Renjun, you bothered me to come with you, and you won’t even tell me where we’re going.”

“Well, to be fair, you didn’t need that much convincing. I think I saved you from your assignment, actually.”

You shake your head disapprovingly and cross your arms. Renjun laughs and reaches to turn on the radio. A quiet tune starts to play as you lean your head on the window and stares at the passing houses. It’s warm in Renjun’s car, warmer than your room, and it smells like him, like fresh laundry and something else that smells vaguely like lemon. You glance over at him. He’s wearing nothing special, too. Just a hoodie thrown over a pair of sweatpants, sleeves pulled over his hands as he maneuvers the car. He catches you looking at him.

“What?”

You turn your attention back to the window. “Nothing.”

“Hey,” he says. He takes a hand off the steering wheel and pulls at the sleeve of your sweater. “Isn’t this mine?”

You look at him. “Um, yes.” He laughs and turns his attention back to the road. “You left it at my house that one time.”

“Why didn’t you give it back, though?”

“Because I liked it,” you reply promptly. He giggles again. “How much longer ‘till we get there?”

“Not long,” he says, turning a corner. He switches off the headlights, and you stare at him, confused. “Why’d you turn them off?”

“Just hold on,” he says. A few more moments of driving through a dark empty night, then he says, “Look.”

In the far distance, the horizon begins to light up, like a beacon of light. It’s dazzling, as if the stars had come down from the night sky to greet you two as you approached. Renjun smiles fondly as he watches your eyes light up with wonder. When you drive closer, you realize it’s the Christmas lights of the houses on this street. Every house is lit up, not a single one devoid of lights, and you feel like you’re in another world. There’s one house with a giant light-up reindeer in the front, his red nose blinking like a firefly. Another house has committed to a winter theme, stringing lights with icicles and sprinkling their garden with snow. The tree in their front yard has snowflakes dangling from their branches.

You press your nose against your window, wanting to see every house you pass by. Renjun drives slowly, coasting casually across the road. He laughs and points out several houses that he wants to show you.

“Renjun,” you begin, “you took me out at two in the morning to see Christmas lights?” You want to sound disinterested, but it’s hard to mask the awe in your voice.

“Look how pretty they are though!” He leans over the steering wheel. “Hold on, that’s not all.”

After a few more minutes of driving through the almost enchanted neighborhood, the lights begin to disappear, with fewer houses having extravagant decorations. Renjun speeds up, and soon the neighborhood is almost dark again.

“Aw,” you lean back against the seat. “That was all of them?”

“Yeah, but,” Renjun pauses to turn on the headlights again, and continues, “I have something else to show you.”

The drive is almost silent after that, besides the heater blowing hot air at your faces and the radio playing Christmas tunes softly. It’s not an uncomfortable silence, and you feel the same peaceful feeling wash over you again, but this time with Renjun beside you.

Houses start to come less, with the trees lining the sides of the pavement instead. The road starts to slope upward, and you lean back against your seat. You want to question Renjun, but now you’ve learned not to. You wait to see what he has to show you.

The trees start to cluster, and the road turns rockier. It looks eerie almost, with the headlights highlighting a small space in front of the car and the rest of your surrounding blanketed in darkness. Renjun is quiet and focused.

You decide to ask him. “Hey, where are we going? This place gives me weird vibes. Are you gonna like, kidnap me or something?”

Renjun snickers. “Yeah, my surprise for you is that I’m gonna murder you.” You feign surprise and laugh. “Okay, we’re here now.”

The trees start to clear out more until eventually, they open up into a small clearing. Renjun stops just before a small, shallow cliffside, and gets out of the car. You stay sitting, looking at him questioningly with an eyebrow raised.

“How do I know you’re not just gonna attack me right now?” You purse your lips at him.

“I’m not, I promise.” He grins. “Don’t you want to see the view?”

So, you step out of the car hesitantly and follow Renjun to the edge of the cliff. You are suddenly greeted with the glaring lights of the city below you, absolutely dazzling you. This was something otherworldly, something completely different from seeing the lights of the neighborhood. The city looked alive but sleepy, the hum of life coming from it was quiet and subdued. The cicadas have followed you here, chirping faintly in the brush behind you. Lights from buildings blinked and dance, and the moon above shone like the mother of it all. And being above it all made you feel so ethereal, like you were seeing the world from a new perspective.

“Woah…” is all you can say. Renjun laughs and goes around to the back of his car to open the trunk, leaving you standing at the edge, dumbfounded. He comes back, hauling with him a rolled-up picnic blanket underneath his arms and several pillows in the other. 

You laugh as he unrolls the blanket with dramatic fervor, gently setting the blanket on the grass of the cliffside. He throws the pillows onto the blanket as you settle down, tucking your legs underneath your body, eyes still pointed to the dancing lights below you. Renjun goes back to his trunk and returns with his art supplies in one hand and another blanket in the other.

He hands you the blanket. “You really had this all planned out, didn’t you?”

He nods as he sits down next to you and gets his supplies ready. “Yeah, I found this spot a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to come down here at night to do some painting but I was kind of um…” He trails off. “I didn’t want to go by myself.” He stares at the lights sheepishly.

You laugh. “You were scared!” He shakes his head in denial and pushes you playfully, eyes smiling.

“No, but really.” He rubs the back of his neck and twirls his brush between his fingers. “I wanted to show this to someone. You were the first person I thought of.”

You smile fondly at him and he returns it, his eyes glistening like the stars. You two sit there, quiet, staring at the lights. You’re hugging a pillow close to you, and have a blanket draped around your shoulders. Renjun is focused next to you, and you watch the way his fingers make determined strokes of paint across the page.

When he’s finished, he immediately presents to you. It’s beautiful, the way the drops of color mimic the dancing lights below you. He’s drawn two silhouettes next to each other, silently staring at the lights and somewhere beyond them.

Renjun has his head on your lap, and you’re twirling the soft strands of his hair between your fingertips.

“Thank you, Renjun,” you say softly, voice directed to the city.

“For what?”

“For showing me this.”

“Well, thank you, too, y/n.”

“For what?”

“For everything.” You laugh and pat his head. He wrinkles his nose.

“You’re so cheesy, Renjun.”


End file.
